Broadwick and Peter Street Area: Colman Hedge Close

Colman Hedge Close (figs. 2, 38)
was a field of six acres on the west side of
Colman Hedge Lane, now Wardour Street,
and was the only part of the area covered by this
volume which was not acquired by Henry VIII
for the formation of the Bailiwick of St. James. (fn. 1)
Some building took place here as early as the
1620's, but the development of the close was not
completed until the early eighteenth century.

In 1455 Colman Hedge Close was in the possession of William Say, described as 'de Hospitio
D[omini] Regis'. (fn. 3) This was probably the William
Say who was master of the Hospital of St. Antony
in Threadneedle Street and Dean of the King's
Chapel, and who may perhaps be identified with
William Say, Dean of St. Paul's. (fn. 4)

In April 1455 William Say conveyed the freehold of Colman Hedge Close, then described as
six acres of arable land, to William Nicholl of
London, brewer, and John Davey for an unspecified sum. During the next hundred years
the field passed through the hands of various other
owners and in October 1572 John Denham, of
London, goldsmith, bought it for £60. Denham's
name appears as owner on the plan of 1585 (see
Plate 1), but in the previous September 1584 he
had in fact sold the close to John Gisbie of Heston,
brickmaker, for £101. The latter was perhaps
responsible for digging the gravel pits which remained a feature of Colman Hedge Close until the
late seventeenth century. (fn. 5)

The close continued in the possession of the
Gisbie family until January 1630/1 when Edward
Gisbie (Gisby), probably a son of John, sold
Colman Hedge Close to Sir Edward Wardour, a
prominent official of the Exchequer, for £825. (fn. 6)

At the time of the sale there were about a
dozen houses in the close, several of which had
evidently been erected since 1623. (fn. 7) In April
1630 the churchwardens of St. Martin's acquired
for £40 the lease of one of these houses, near the
western boundary of the close, for use as a
pesthouse, plague then being prevalent in London;
the annual rent of £8 16s. for the premises was at
first paid to Edward Gisbie, and after the sale of
January 1630/1 to Sir Edward Wardour. (fn. 8) In
1632, when the outbreak of plague had declined,
the vestry tried to let the house to a private tenant
upon the condition that they could 'have the same
in time of need upon a days warning'. In the
following year the conversion of the pesthouse
into 'a fit workhouse for the begging poor of this
parish' was considered, and in 1638 the vestry
decided to dispose of their lease. (fn. 9) The building is
marked as a pesthouse on a map of 1664. (fn. 10)

Figure 38:

Colman Hedge Close, layout plan. Based on the Ordnance Survey, 1870–5

Another of the houses standing on Colman
Hedge Close was converted into a brewhouse
sometime before 1647, and let by Nathan Butler,
an under-tenant of Sir Edward Wardour, to one
Roberts. (fn. 11) In 1656 there was also a saltpetre
house in Colman Hedge Close, probably erected
by William Gegg of Soho, carpenter, to whom a
twenty-one-year lease of the building was granted
by Mary Wardour. (fn. 12) It was probably situated
between what are now Brewer Street and Peter
Street, and may have given its name to the latter.
It may also have been responsible for the name
Powder or Gunpowder Street which was applied
to the western portion of Brewer Street in the late
seventeenth century (see pages 118, 228).

These early buildings must have covered a
considerable portion of Colman Hedge Close, and
were probably situated along the western side of
Colman Hedge Lane (now Wardour Street) and
on the northern side of the narrow passage (now
Brewer Street) to Sir William Pulteney's property.
There was evidently no other formal street layout
in the close until the 1670's, when Peter Street
developed, probably out of a passage to the salt-petre house. (fn. 13)

By this period the freehold of Colman Hedge
Close had descended to Edward Wardour, who
had probably inherited the property on the death
of his grandfather, Sir Edward Wardour, in
1646/7. (fn. 14) In 1685 a group of speculators came
to an agreement with Wardour to take a lease of
the property 'for the premises to be improved by
Building'. The prospective lessees were James
Pollett, a cook turned building speculator, Joseph
Collens, carpenter, and Robert Walkton. (fn. 15)
Pollett had already acquired long leases of Little
Gelding's Close and Doghouse Close, both of
which abutted on the northern part of Colman
Hedge Close (see pages 243, 230 and fig. 2).

In November 1685 the three partners agreed
amongst themselves as to their respective shares
in the field to be leased from Edward Wardour.
Pollett was to have a half share and Collens and
Walkton a quarter share each. They must have
already laid out parts of the property for building
(although their lease was not signed until the
following month) and must also have come to
agreement with a number of building tradesmen
prepared to take up sub-leases of individual sites.
The lease of December 1685 was made to James
Pollett, acting for himself and as trustee for his
two partners. It was for ninety-one years at a rent
of £200 per annum and included a covenant by
Pollett to spend £1400 on the development of the
property. (fn. 16)

In the years immediately following, Pollett and
his associates were successful in sub-leasing most
of the building sites in Colman Hedge Close, those
which fronted on to Wardour Street, the modern
Brewer Street and Edward Street (now part of
Broadwick Street) being built up between 1686
and 1692.

In the western part of the close Pollett appears
to have intended to lay out a large market square.
In 1687 he and Charles Clutterbook obtained
from James II a grant of the rights in the haymarket then held in the street of that name, (fn. 17) and
in the following year, after acquiring Clutterbook's
interest, Pollett was granted the right to transfer
that market to his own ground in 'the olde Sohoe'.
A condition of this second grant was that he
should within two years make the new site 'fitt to
receive the … Carts Wagons or Waines of hay
and straw and for the keeping of the said market'. (fn. 18)

After the accession of William III Pollett was
accused of being a professed papist and in 1690
both the grants from James II were cancelled. (fn. 19)
By this time the layout of the market place had
evidently begun, and the part of Broad Street in
Colman Hedge Close was for some years known
as 'the new Haymarket'. (fn. 20) In 1708 Berwick
Street, whose eastern side to the south of Edward
Street was probably intended to form the eastern
side of the market square, was described as 'a kind
of Row, the Fronts of the Houses resting on
Columns, [which] make a small Piazza'. (fn. 21) In his
comments on Berwick Street written in 1720
Strype stated that 'About the Middle of this Street
is a Place designed for a Hay Market, and a great
Part of the low Ground raised, with some of the
Houses built Piazzo wise, and sustained by Stone
Pillars; but whether it will be finished, Time will
make appear'. (fn. 22) The failure of this scheme was
probably the cause of the delay in the completion
of the development of the western part of Colman
Hedge Close, and for the haphazard layout
between Peter and Broad Streets.

In 1714 the freehold of Colman Hedge Close
was purchased by Pollett's executors for five
thousand pounds. (fn. 23)

Wardour Street

Wardour Street derives its name from Edward
Wardour, who owned the freehold of Colman
Hedge Close. The street developed out of an
ancient highway known as Colman Hedge Lane
which extended from the Mews (formerly on the
site of the National Gallery) to Tyburn Road (now
Oxford Street). The southern end of this lane is
now known as Whitcomb Street. The stretch
between Coventry Street and Old Compton Street
has formed part of Wardour Street since 1878,
but was previously known as Princes Street and is
so marked on the 1746 edition of Rocque's map.

The upper part of Colman Hedge Lane was
known as Soho or Soho Street from the fields
which bordered its eastern side. The name
Wardour Street first appears in the ratebooks in
1689 and applied only to this part of the lane.
Nevertheless 'Soho' as a name for this part of
Colman Hedge Lane persisted and in July 1691
there is a reference to 'Old Soho, otherwise
Wardour Street' in the Middlesex Sessions records,
when the street was ordered to be paved. (fn. 24) This
older name remained in use until at least 1746,
when that part of the modern Wardour Street
between Peter Street and Winnett Street is
marked as 'Old Soho' on Rocque's map. In 1878
the name Wardour Street was extended to include
Princes Street and the whole length of Colman
Hedge Lane from Coventry Street to Oxford
Street became known by its present name.

Only the western side of Wardour Street is
described in the present volume, all the land to
the east being in the adjoining parish of St. Anne,
Soho. The west side of the street was bordered by
four separate fields (see fig. 2)—Doghouse Close
(Chapter XV), Colman Hedge Close (described
here), Laystall Piece or Knaves' Acre (Chapter
IX) and Vesey's Garden and Watts's Close
(Chapter VIII).

Ogilby and Morgan's map (Plate 3a) shows
that most of the part of the street described in this
chapter had been developed by 1681–2. Building
tradesmen to whom sub-leases were granted of
land in Colman Hedge Close fronting the street
between 1685 and 1689 include Nicholas Stone
and John Marriott, bricklayers, Richard Tyler,
brickmaker and William Oram, plasterer. (fn. 25) Many
of the buildings now standing in this section of the
street were erected in the 1920's and 30's for the
film corporations with which Wardour Street
is now associated; none of them is of interest.

Few large houses were built in Wardour Street
and the street never seems to have had any pretensions to fashion, the inhabitants being chiefly
tradesmen and innkeepers. In the early nineteenth
century it was famous for its bookshops, much
frequented by Charles Lamb. Later it 'became a
by-word and a proverb, as the headquarters of
curiosity-shops, antique and modern, genuine and
fictitious'. (fn. 26) In the present century Wardour
Street has become a centre for the music-publishing business, and more especially, the film-making
industry.

The Intrepid Fox Public House

This public house owes its name to the enthusiastic partisanship of its proprietor, Samuel House,
for Charles James Fox during the Westminster
election of 1784. (fn. 27)

Broadwick Street

The street now known as Broadwick Street extends across four separate estates (see fig. 2)—
Colman Hedge Close, Little Gelding's Close
(both in the possession of James Pollett), Pawlett's
Garden (Sir William Pulteney) and Pesthouse
Close (the Earl of Craven). Building started at the
eastern end in 1686, immediately after Edward
Wardour's lease of Colman Hedge Close to Pollett,
and proceeded intermittently westward, the final
extension to Marshall Street being completed in
1736. Until 1936 the greater part of the street was
called Broad Street, and the narrow eastern
section Edward Street; in that year both these
names were abolished and the whole thoroughfare
is now called Broadwick Street.

Edward Street probably took its name from
Edward Wardour, who had lived in a house on or
near the site of the new street. Building began in
1686; an inscribed stone formerly at the corner of
Wardour Street bore that date. (fn. 28) The street first
appears in the ratebooks by name in 1689, when
both sides seem to have been completed. Anthony
Stephenson, carpenter, and John Marriott, bricklayer, were two of the tradesmen to whom Pollett
and his associates Collens and Walkton granted
building leases. (fn. 29)

After the failure of his scheme for a market (see
page 220) Pollett appears to have decided to lay
out a wide street in continuation of Edward Street
across his ground in both Colman Hedge Close
and Little Gelding's Close. Four houses on the
south side of Broad Street between Berwick
Street and New Street (now Ingestre Place) were
built and occupied by 1693, and another five by
1695. (fn. 20) No further houses were built in Broad
Street until after Pollett's death in 1703, (fn. 30) when
his executors undertook the development of the
vacant land and disposed of all the building sites
on both sides of the street. Building must have
begun almost immediately, for by 1704 there were
already fourteen new houses built and occupied
and by 1706 all the houses on both sides of the
street in Colman Hedge Close and Little Gelding's
Close were complete. (fn. 20) Nos. 42–46 (even)
Broadwick Street, which still survive, belong to
this stage of the development of the street and are
described on page 248.

A house which formerly stood on the north
side of this part of the street is illustrated by the
drawing reproduced on Plate 122a; the drawing
was evidently made during the occupancy of the
Hon. Colonel Thomas Savill, who lived in Broad
Street from at least 1716 until 1730. (fn. 20) The
three-storeyed front was three windows wide with
detailing very similar to that of the original houses
in Golden Square. The windows were flatheaded with barred sashes in flush frames, the
second and third storeys being finished with a
bandcourse, while at the top was a modillioned
eaves-cornice. The area-railing was divided at
intervals by panels of wrought iron and the doorway had a moulded architrave surmounted by a
swan-neck pediment on carved consoles. In the
high-pitched roof was a single large dormer
window with a triangular pediment.

Between 1718 and 1723 Broad Street was
extended westward across William Pulteney's land
in Pawlett's Garden, the width of the street
being somewhat reduced. Nos. 48–58 (even)
Broadwick Street, which were built here at this
time, still survive and are described on page 214.
The final extension of Broad Street into Lord
Craven's Pesthouse Close to link up with Marshall
Street did not take place until 1734–6. Of this
development Nos. 60–74 (even) and 51–67 (odd)
still survive and are described on page 203.

As a street of fairly large houses, Broad Street
in its early days had a number of well-to-do
residents, though none of any particular note.
With the erection of the new houses on the Burlington estate and in St. George's parish, Broad
Street (like Golden Square) quickly declined in
fashion, and by the mid eighteenth century most
of the houses were probably occupied by tradesmen
and lodging-house keepers. (fn. 2) In the nineteenth
century there was a further decline. A large
brewery occupied a range of buildings on the
south side of the street and many of the houses
were sub-divided as workrooms or tenements.
The original houses seem to have been little
altered and the visual aspect of the street did not
greatly change until the erection of the large
blocks on the south side of the street in the
1930's.

Broadwick Street is irregular in character, reflecting its piecemeal development. The part east
of Berwick Street is little more than an entry from
Wardour Street, lined mostly with late nineteenthand twentieth-century warehouse and tenement
buildings. The earliest building is the Bricklayers'
Arms, on the east corner of Duck Lane, which
probably dates from the mid nineteenth century.
The part between Berwick Street and Lexington
Street is much wider, and has been almost entirely rebuilt with large modern blocks. The
south side is made up of three blocks, all faced with
red brick and stone, Broadwick House, Trenchard
House and Colquhoun House. Trenchard House
is the best of them; it was erected as a police section
house in 1938–40 to the design of Stanley G.
Livock. The blocks on the north side are completely undistinguished, the only surviving buildings of interest being Nos. 42–46 (even), which
are early eighteenth century. The western end of
the street contains the greatest interest, since most
of the original houses have survived, Nos. 39–49
(odd) alone having been rebuilt. Nos. 48–58
(even) comprise an exceptionally good and well
preserved terrace but Nos. 51–67 (odd) and 60–74
(even) are in a bad state of decay.

In 1854 there was a severe outbreak of cholera
in Broad Street and in the neighbouring streets.
A total of seven hundred people died and in the
forty-nine houses in Broad Street the inhabitants
of only twelve escaped without a death. The
Builder blamed the many cesspools in the street
and called for a parish enquiry. (fn. 31) This was
carried out in the following year by a vestry committee, which after deploring the presence of the
numerous cesspools, the bad smells from the
grease-boiling houses, the local cow-sheds and
slaughter-houses, asserted that the outbreak had
been caused by contaminated water from the pump
before No. 40 Broad Street (now No. 41 Broadwick Street). The committee, largely influenced
by Dr. John Snow, whose name has ever since
been linked with the whole affair, then chained up
the pump handle in a belated attempt to stem the
epidemic. (fn. 32)

Snow, who then lived at No. 18 Sackville
Street, had been investigating the causes of the
spread of cholera for several years. He believed
that the disease was water-borne and carried out a
detailed investigation of the Broad Street outbreak. He found that in most cases the cholerastricken sick had drunk water from the street
pump and that in premises with other water
supplies the death rate was much lower. (fn. 33) Although his theory was confirmed by the cessation
of the 1854 cholera epidemic, and generally
accepted, the pump handle was later unchained
and the well-water continued to be used for at
least another decade. (fn. 34)

Dr. Snow's association with the street is now
commemorated by the John Snow public house at
No. 39 Broadwick Street, which stands near the
site of the notorious pump.

Edward Street Baptist Chapel

Demolished

In or shortly after 1782 Richard Burnham
established a Baptist chapel in Edward Street under
the name of Elim or Salem. The chapel was
described as 'a large room … converted into a
place of worship', and Horwood's map of 1819
shows that it was on the north side of the street
opposite Duck Lane. In 1795 Burnham and his
followers moved to Grafton Street, and until 1805
the chapel in Edward Street was occupied by
'various adventurers.' (fn. 35) The chapel continued in
use for some years, and is marked on a map of
1836 as a 'French Protestant Chapel'. (fn. 36)

The Lion Brewery

Demolished

There was a brewery on the south side of Broadwick Street from 1801 to 1937. In the former
year two small houses, then Nos. 49 and 50 Broad
Street, together with adjoining premises in New
Street (now part of Ingestre Place) were taken
by Messrs. Stretton, a firm of brewers. By 1824
the firm occupied all the premises in Broad
Street between New Street and Hopkins Street.
Two years later the brewery was taken over by
Messrs. Goding and Broadwood and probably
altered for them at about this time by the
architect Francis Edwards. Later alterations
were made to the brewery in 1885 by the
builders Thornewill and Warham. The building
was demolished in 1937 to make way for the
present block, Trenchard House. (fn. 37)

Berwick Street

This street was probably named after the Duke of
Berwick, an illegitimate son of James II. The
latter may possibly have been a protector of the
papist James Pollett, upon whose land the street
was first laid out.

Berwick Street extends throughout almost the
full length of Colman Hedge Close and Doghouse
Close, both of which were held on lease by Pollett.
The southern section, between Peter and Broad
Streets, was laid out between 1687 and 1703, and
the northern section, between Broad Street and
Tyburn Road (now Oxford Street) a few years
later. In 1687 Pollett built sewers in Berwick
Street in the vicinity of Peter Street (fn. 38) and the
street first appears by name in the ratebooks in
1689. Ten houses had then been built and occupied under sub-leases granted by Pollett's associate
Joseph Collens, who seems to have been chiefly
responsible for disposing of the sites in Berwick
Street. Building tradesmen included Richard
Avery, bricklayer, William Harper, glazier,
William Oram, plasterer, Thomas Husbands,
painter, and Thomas Parr and John Wrist,
paviours. The evidence for the development of
the southern part of the street is confusing, but
probably most of the vacant sites were let and
houses built there before 1703. (fn. 39)

Shortly after 1707 Berwick Street was extended
north of Broad Street into Doghouse Close to link
up with Tyburn Road. This new development
was evidently carried out by Pollett's executors,
who after his death in 1703 had been responsible
for the completion of Poland Street and the
eastern part of Broad Street. The buildings in this
part of the street are described on pages 232–4.

In 1720 Strype described Berwick Street as 'a
pretty handsome strait Street, with new well built
Houses, much inhabited by the French, where
they have a Church'. (fn. 24) Walford described the
street in the nineteenth century as 'a haunt of
artists of little note, and of trades subservient to an
artist's requirements'. (fn. 40) In the 1850's and 60's
the houses in this street and neighbourhood were
denounced by The Builder as rookeries. They
were all overcrowded and insanitary; the death
rate was high and in 1854 there were many cases
of cholera in Berwick Street. (fn. 41)

Berwick Street has retained its domestic
character more than most of the streets in this
neighbourhood, presumably because the presence
of the market has discouraged large-scale rebuilding. Here and there a house has been replaced by a
late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century building for use as a warehouse or workrooms, but these
generally respect the original scale of the street.
Two major exceptions are the large newly built
blocks of flats, offices and shops on the west side,
one by Westminster City Council, extending from
Peter Street to Kemp's Court, and the other,
known as Waverley House, replacing the former
Nos. 62–66. The older houses are of three or
four storeys with brick fronts two or three windows
wide, the three-storeyed ones having a garret
contained in a mansard roof. Although in most
cases the fronts date from the late eighteenth or
the nineteenth centuries, the rest of the house
often dates from the early eighteenth century.

In the section of Berwick Street within Colman
Hedge Close the whole of the west side has been
rebuilt within the last ten or fifteen years, and although the east side retains many of its original
narrow-fronted plots, not a single early eighteenth-century front remains. Several of the buildings on
this side of the street appear to have been entirely
rebuilt as tenements or warehouses in the mid to
late nineteenth century and most of the others
have fronts dating from the early nineteenth
century. It has not been possible to examine any
of the interiors.

Berwick Street Market

This market developed from the practice of
shop-keepers displaying their wares on the pavement before their shops. There seems never to
have been any formal grant of market rights, nor
even, until 1892, any official recognition of the
existence of a market here.

The earliest known reference to the sale of
goods in the street occurs in 1778 in the minutes
of the vestry committee for paving, repairing,
cleaning and lighting the streets of the parish.
'Ten brokers living in Berwick Street and New
Street' (now Ingestre Place) were then summoned 'for setting out goods in the Street… .
Whereupon the Committee … advised them to
be careful not to offend in future.' All future
offences of this kind were to be dealt with by the
magistrates. (fn. 42)

The subsequent development of the street
market was slow. In 1868 the vestry, in response
to a request from the City Corporation for a
return of the markets in the parish, stated 'that
there are no markets within the Parish but that it
is desirable that a Market should be established'.
It added that the ancient markets of the parish—
St. James's Market, Carnaby Market and the
Haymarket—all of which had been founded by
patent in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries, had long ceased to be used for their
original purpose. (fn. 43)

Nothing seems to have come of this project, and
the Berwick Street shop-keepers continued to
obstruct the pavement with their wares. In March
1883 proceedings were taken against one such
offender, the occupant of No. 101 Berwick
Street, for 'placing out baskets and boards containing vegetables'. (fn. 44) By this period the market
had evidently developed into a regular institution,
for in May 1885 the ratepayers of the area
petitioned the vestry to extend the market in
Berwick Street and to form another in Broad
Street. The vestry replied that it had no powers to
form or extend street markets. (fn. 45) Three years later
the vestry tried to compel the removal of a stall
outside No. 100 Berwick Street, but after the
owner had stated that the stall had stood in that
position for sixteen years no further action was
taken. (fn. 46)

In January 1892 the vestry at last recognized
the existence of the market when it stated, in reply
to an enquiry from the London County Council,
that the only street market in the parish was in
Berwick Street, that it caused little interference
with traffic and that the neighbouring shop-keepers
were in favour of its retention. The vestry considered that the market might be allowed to expand northwards into Broad Street, that it should
not be restricted to the sale of perishable goods, nor
even confined to vendors resident in the district. (fn. 47)

The Blue Posts Public House

There has been a public house of this name on
this site at the corner of Broadwick Street since at
least 1739; in the eighteenth century it was sometimes called the Three Blue Posts. (fn. 48) The present
building is in the neo-Georgian style with a few
art nouveau details.

No. 24 Berwick Street

This is the most northerly house on the east
side of the street built on Colman Hedge Close.
The site was originally occupied by two houses,
one of which was a public house known as the
Three Doves. They were rebuilt as one house in
1826, (fn. 20) and remained a public house until 1927. (fn. 49)

No. 24 has the best of the early nineteenthcentury fronts in this part of Berwick Street. It is
of three storeys and built of yellow brick, each of
the second and third storeys having three widely
spaced windows with flat gauged arches, the latter
now painted red. In the second storey the windows
are set in shallow round-arched recesses. The top
cornice and parapet are of stucco, the latter being
broken in the centre by a pedestal. The ground
storey has been completely altered. No. 57, the
Green Man public house further north in the
street (see page 232), is in much the same style.

Le Quarré French Church

Demolished

The first record of this congregation is in 1690,
when it was meeting in Soho Square (which was
known in French as 'Le Quarré de Sohoe'). In
1694 the congregation removed to a chapel in
Berwick Street, (fn. 50) probably that described in the
ratebooks as 'Mr. Kemps Chappell'. (fn. 20) Rocque's
map of 1746 (Plate 6) marks this building as
'Fr. Ch.' and shows that it stood on the west side
of Berwick Street a little to the north of the
Anglican chapel of ease, formerly La Patente;
it backed on to Hopkins Street, but the entrance
was evidently from Berwick Street.

In 1709 Le Quarré was joined by the Swallow
Street congregation (see page 63). In or shortly
before 1726 a joint vestry ('Vesterie Commune')
was established for the two congregations of Le
Quarré and the chapel in Castle Street, St.
Martin's Lane; (fn. 51) in 1762 the two congregations
amalgamated and the chapel in Castle Street was
vacated. (fn. 52) Between 1767 and 1769 the chapel in
Berwick Street was also vacated, (fn. 53) and the congregation removed to Little Dean Street (now
Bourchier Street). (fn. 54)

Rhodes's map of 1770 marks the chapel in
Berwick Street as an auction room. It was
probably this building which was referred to in
1818 as the 'Berwick Street Theatre'. This was a
small hall with seating capacity for 350 persons
which was used occasionally for private theatricals;
it formed part of the premises of an auctioneer and
copperplate-engraver named Daley, who let it for
seven guineas a night. (fn. 55)

St. Luke's Church

Formerly La Patente French Church. Demolished

On 5 September 1688 James II issued letters
patent incorporating a body of ten French
ministers and granting them a licence to establish
one or more churches for the Huguenot refugees
in the City and suburbs. (fn. 56) Two non-conforming
churches, both known as 'La Patente', were
established by the ministers, one in Spitalfields (fn. 57)
and the other in Berwick Street, Soho.

The latter is said to have been opened in 1689 (fn. 58)
in a building leased from Joseph Collens, one of
James Pollett's associates in the development of
Colman Hedge Close. (fn. 59) The congregation was
certainly in existence by 1691, when the 'French
Church in Berwick Street' complained to the St.
James's vestry of being over-assessed for the poor
rates. (fn. 60)

In October 1694 La Patente, Soho, moved to
Little Chapel Street (fn. 58) (now Sheraton Street),
presumably to the large building whose erection
was described as having been made possible by
gifts from English friends. Three ministers remained, however, with part of the congregation
in the Berwick Street chapel, (fn. 59) which now
appears to have been known as L'Ancienne
Patente or La Vieille Patente, while La Patente,
in Little Chapel Street, was sometimes given
the prefix Petite or Nouvelle. (fn. 61)

In 1696 there was serious disagreement among
the three ministers of L'Ancienne Patente, and
one of them, William Bardon, was dismissed.
The other two, Peter Charles Souchett and
Antony Blank, took a new lease from Michaelmas
1696. (fn. 59)

By 1707 the congregation had evidently dispersed, for at a meeting of the St. James's vestry
on 24 July of that year the rector proposed that the
parish should purchase and fit-up 'the chapel
formerly used by the French in Berwick street', as
a chapel of ease, and a committee was set up to
carry the plan into execution. (fn. 62) In October 1707
the rector expressed the hope that the 'new chapel'
in Berwick Street would be ready early in the new
year. (fn. 63)

The cost of the work seems to have been
greater than was at first anticipated, the largest
single bill submitted by Mr. Ludby amounting to
£1100. (fn. 64) The building is referred to at this time
as the 'new Erected Chappell', and complete rebuilding may have taken place. (fn. 65)

Despite repairs in 1737 and 1740 the chapel
was 'very much out of repair' by 1749. (fn. 66) In
1765 the lease was renewed by the freeholder, Sir
Andrew Chadwick, and in the following two
years the building was extensively repaired at a
cost of £517. The work included the provision
of a room on the west side of the chapel, where
services were to be held for the children of the
poorhouse. The two chief workmen employed
were Bilcliffe, carpenter, and Ludby, bricklayer.
In 1766 the organ in Archbishop Tenison's chapel
in King Street was acquired by the Berwick Street
chapel. (fn. 67) Further repairs were carried out in
1794 under the supervision of Thomas Hardwick.
Seven years later the freehold of the building was
purchased. (fn. 68)

In 1833 it was reported to the St. James's
vestry that many of the poor persons displaced
by the street improvements in the St. Giles's area
had migrated to the Berwick Street district. This
had 'become so low and turbulent' that respectable
people had been deterred from attending the
chapel, where services were constantly interrupted.
It was suggested that the building should be sold
and a new chapel erected 'in a more eligible spot'. (fn. 69)
The Church Building Commissioners were
asked to assist, but they were only prepared to
support the building of a new church on the existing site. (fn. 70) The vestry agreed to this stipulation,
and in 1835 the chapel was conveyed to the Commissioners. (fn. 71)

The first stone of the new church was laid by
Earl de Grey on 15 March 1838 (fn. 72) and the building was consecrated as St. Luke's Church on 23
July 1839. (fn. 73) The cost was estimated at £14,000.
The architect was Edward Blore and the builders
Messrs. Grundy and H. Hartley (fn. 72) (Plate 11a, fig.
39).

In 1841 the church was assigned an ecclesiastical district, which was described as the most
densely populated in London. (fn. 74) At first an
attempt was made to charge a low pew-rent for
about half the sittings, (fn. 75) but this scheme had
gradually to be abandoned in the face of the
poverty of the area, and by 1863 all sittings were
free. (fn. 76) A large west gallery originally accommodated the children of the St. James's National
Schools, but this was reduced to half its size in
around 1860. (fn. 77) For some years a school appears
to have been held in the rooms under the church. (fn. 78)

In 1935 St. Luke's district was amalgamated
with the adjoining parish of St. Anne, Soho, and
the church was demolished in the following year. (fn. 79)
The site is now occupied by Kemp House.

St. Luke's Church was an insular building of
simple plan, a rectangle divided into nave and aisles
of seven bays. The arcades, composed of slender
columns of wood linked by wooden fretted arches,
supported the open trusses of the roof. A dais at
the south end served for the chancel, containing
the choir stalls and the sanctuary, there were open
pews flanking a wide central aisle, and at the north
end was a deep gallery to accommodate the school
children. The large basement below the church
was first used as a vicarage, and later as club
rooms. (fn. 80)

The exterior was designed in the Decorated
Gothic style, well detailed, but the effect was that
of a typical Commissioners' church. Each angle
of the building was emphasized by an octagonal
buttress, rising to a crocketed square pinnacle.
The east side facing Berwick Street was the 'front',
with seven windows in bays divided by slender
buttresses with weathered offsets, finishing in
gablets level with the window arches. The
southernmost window was of two lights, the
northernmost a narrow single light, and the remaining five were of three lights below arched
heads of curvilinear tracery. Below each end
three-light window was a doorway, dressed with a
pinnacled and crocketed gable. The parapet,
perforated with trefoils, extended unbroken between the pinnacles of the end buttresses.

Figure 39:

St. Luke's Church, Berwick Street, plan. Based on the Ordnance Survey, 1870–5, and a plan in the possession of the Church Commissioners.

The south end elevation was divided by pinnacled buttresses into three bays, conforming with
the nave and aisles. In the middle bay was a large
window of five lights with a traceried head, and in
each side bay was a narrow single light. The west
elevation was generally similar to the east, but had
only one doorway, while the almost hidden north
end was remarkable only for a small open belfry,
rising above the apex of the gable.

Kemp House

This block was erected in 1960–2. It was
built for Westminster City Council by Messrs.
Wates Ltd., at an estimated cost of half a million
pounds. The scheme was designed by the
Council's Director of Housing, in association
with L. C. Holbrook, of Messrs. Riches and
Blythin. (fn. 81)

Kemp House is a noteworthy example of mixed
development comprising offices, flats and shops.
The building is steel-framed with a threestoreyed podium surmounted, towards the southern end, by a fourteen-storeyed tower faced with
pinkish-yellow brick. Towards Berwick Street
the podium is set well back behind a broad pavement, but above the shops in the ground storey
projects a deep canopy which helps preserve the
intimacy of the market area, an effect which is
heightened by cantilevering the second and third
storeys out over the pavement to form a wing at
each end. A fuller description will be found in
The Architect's Journal, 18 October 1961, pp.
675–687.

Brewer Street

Only Nos. 2–30 (even) Brewer Street are built on
Colman Hedge Close; the general history of the
street is described on page 118. The first houses on
these sites were probably built in the 1660's and
70's along the southern boundary of the field and
fronting on to a passage-way (shown in a map of
1664) (fn. 10) to the adjoining Pulteney property. In
the 1670's this passage-way became the eastward
arm of Sir William Pulteney's 'new way' (see
page 118). Ogilby and Morgan's map of
1681–2 (Plate 3a) shows that it was a well defined
street with houses along most of its north side.

This new street was at first known as Knaves'
Acre from the close which flanked its southern
side, but later became known as Pulteney or Little
Pulteney Street. In 1937 the name Brewer Street
was extended to include all the houses eastwards
up to Wardour Street.

Following the grant of the long building lease
of all Colman Hedge Close to Pollett and his
associates in December 1685, the remaining vacant
sites on this new street were sub-let for building
and a number of new houses erected there. John
Simmonds, blacksmith, and James Price, glazier,
were two of the tradesmen who took up sites here. (fn. 82)

No. 12 Brewer Street

Formerly No. 5 Little Pulteney Street

No. 12 is a larger than average house, apparently
dating from about 1750 but possibly earlier in its
carcase. A modern shop-front almost fills the
ground storey, its fascia largely concealing the
brick sill-course to the first-floor windows. The
upper part of the front is of plain brickwork, with
two tiers of four evenly spaced windows, a few on
the right retaining sashes with glazing-bars, all
set in plain openings with plastered reveals and
flat gauged arches. The return front to Walker's
Court has also four windows in each storey, some
of them blind and the rest with barred sashes. The
soldier-course, the rudimentary cornice of projecting brick courses and the parapet are modern.

Green's Court

This court probably takes its name from
Thomas Green, paviour, to whom a lease of part
of the site was granted by Edward Wardour before
December 1685. Three houses were built there
by 1688. (fn. 82)

Peter Street

This street probably originated as a passage-way
to the saltpetre house which was built about 1656
on a site between this street and Brewer Street. (fn. 12)
The street name (which probably derived from
this building) first appears in the ratebooks for
1675 and Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1681–2
shows buildings along the greater part of both
sides of the street. After the grant of the building
lease of 1685 to Pollett and his associates a number
of new houses were erected there between 1686
and 1693. (fn. 20) The building tradesmen who took
up leases include Thomas Husbands, painter, and
John James and Abraham Bridle, carpenters. (fn. 83)

In 1720 Peter Street was described as 'a Street
not over well inhabited', (fn. 22) and in the 1830's as 'a
short dirty street, without any thoroughfare'. (fn. 84)
By the late nineteenth century the buildings had
become 'wretched hovels, and a disgrace to
humanity'. (fn. 85) Most of the street has been rebuilt
during the last hundred years and the earliest
surviving houses are of the late eighteenth or early
nineteenth centuries.

Nos. 2–4, 20–22 (consec.), and 28 Peter Street

Nos. 2 and 3 were built as a pair probably in the
early nineteenth century, of brick since painted.
Both consist of a basement and three low storeys,
with a shop on the ground floor and one wide
three-light window to the front room on the two
upper storeys (segmental-headed at No. 2, flatheaded at No. 3, both with plastered reveals), and
a parapet concealing the roof. No. 4 next door,
two windows wide and four storeys high, carries
the inscription 'JP1828' between the first and
second floors.

Nos. 20–22 (consec.) form a four-storeyed
terrace of three houses, each two windows wide,
and resembling Nos. 33–36 Marshall Street. The
ground floor, with thin pilaster-strips and meagre
continuous entablature, was apparently planned
for shop-fronts, but each contains only one
domestic window. The top floor has been renewed. No. 23 has been rebuilt above the ground
floor, which has the remains of a continuous
range of small-paned shop windows. The cementfaced front of No. 28, three storeys high and three
windows wide, has a pilaster-strip at the east end,
above a nineteenth-century shop-front.

Peter Street Chapel

Demolished

In 1734 Dr. James Anderson and part of his
congregation left the Scottish church in Swallow
Street (see page 63) and established themselves in
Lisle Street chapel, near Leicester Square. When
they were unable to renew the lease of this building in 1755, the congregation, now led by Dr.
John Patrick, acquired two houses in Peter
Street and used their sites for a new church,
described as 'a small neat building, with three
galleries and conveniently fitted up with pews'. (fn. 86)

In 1815 it was listed as an independent chapel, (fn. 87)
but later reverted to Scottish Presbyterianism. In
the 1850's it was used by the Wesleyans, (fn. 49) but it
evidently ceased to be used as a chapel in 1858,
when all the internal fittings were offered for
sale. (fn. 88) The chapel was situated on the north side
of Peter Street, one door west of Hopkins Street,
and later became the St. Luke's National School, (fn. 89)
which was demolished in 1880 for the erection of
a London School Board school (see below).

Pulteney L.C.C. School

This building was erected for the London
School Board in 1880 by the builders Messrs.
Wall Brothers of Kentish Town, from the plans
of E. R. Robson, architect to the Board. The
site had previously been occupied by a number of
small houses and by St. Luke's National School. (fn. 90)

This is one of the plainer buildings designed by
Robson for the London School Board. It is a
single tall block of three storeys in yellow stock
brick with red brick dressings. The windows have
white-painted glazing-bars and the coved main
cornice is painted white, the only other notable
decorative element being the lofty arcade of
shallow segmental-headed recesses with white
keystones on the top storey, containing flatheaded windows. A two-storey cottage of the
same materials stands west of the school.

Ingestre Place

In 1868 New Street and Husband Street were together renamed Ingestre Place after a block of
artisans' dwellings known as Ingestre Buildings.
These had been erected on the initiative of Lord
Ingestre on a site fronting both these streets in
1853–5.

Only the east side of New Street formed part of
Colman Hedge Close, the west side being part of
Windmill Field (see page 137). The first houses
on the east side were probably erected in the
decade 1695–1705, following the development of
the adjoining sites on the south side of Broad
Street and the west side of Berwick Street. (fn. 20) In
1721 a house in New Street was taken by the
vestry of St. James as a parish infirmary for sick
and impotent paupers. It remained open until
1748 (see page 210).

Husband Street probably took its name from
Thomas Husbands, painter, to whom Joseph
Collens, one of James Pollett's associates in the
development of Colman Hedge Close, granted
several leases in 1701. (fn. 91) The buildings on the
north side of the street were demolished in 1852
for the erection of Ingestre Buildings and those on
the south side in 1880 for the London School
Board school (see above).

Ingestre Buildings

This block of artisans' dwellings was erected
through the initiative of Lord Ingestre (later
nineteenth Earl of Shrewsbury) by the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings
of the Industrious Classes. In 1852 the association
took a ninety-nine-year lease of a large site which
abutted on to the Lion Brewery on the north, and
on New Street, Husband Street and Hopkins
Street on its other three sides. This ground was
covered by a quadrangle of dilapidated buildings,
known as 'the Barracks', in the midst of which
stood a cow-house full of cows and pigs. The site
was then cleared and a new building was erected
in 1853–5 at an estimated cost of £9000 (Plate
139b). The architect was Charles Lee. The new
building, a plain four-storey block, with a few
rusticated pilaster-strips and brick bandcourses
above a dark entrance court-yard, did not meet
with the approval of The Builder, which complained that it was overcrowded, lacked a playground and that the inhabitants were forced to
close their windows to exclude the 'incense' from
the adjoining Lion Brewery in Broad Street. (fn. 92)

Hopkins Street

Although it does not appear by name in the ratebooks until 1716 the original development of
Hopkins Street probably took place in the 1690's,
after the forfeiture of James Pollett's market
licence in 1690 (see page 220). The street
probably takes its name from Richard Hopkins,
plasterer, to whom a lease of a site on the east side
was granted in 1709. (fn. 93)

Footnotes

1. There was also a small strip of land on the east side of Great Windmill Street which may not have been part of
the bailiwick, but its early history is obscure (see page 32).

2. Thomas Sheration, the furniture designer, lived in a house on the site of the present Nos. 26–40 (even) Broadwick
Street from 1804 until his death in 1806. He had previously lived in Wardour Street (see page 241).